Find a Bible study in Austin, or start one at your table.

Austin is difficult to cross at the wrong hour. A person near North Lamar should not be expected to fight traffic to South Austin every Tuesday, and somebody leaving a shift near Montopolis may not make a 6 p.m. table downtown. Ask where people will be coming from before choosing the room. Then pick a firm ending time.

North Austin and the St. John area

Little Walnut Creek Branch is at 835 West Rundberg Lane and lists a meeting-room calendar and reservation option. This is a more realistic public location for people around North Lamar and St. John than assuming the St. John branch has a group room. Check the calendar before announcing anything.

Austin Public Library's larger branch meeting rooms are free, but they are for noncommercial groups of at least three people, and the meeting must be free and open to the public. A group may reserve a room at one location no more than three times in a rolling 90-day period. That makes a library room useful for a first public gathering or occasional open study. It is not a weekly room you can quietly claim forever.

Montopolis and southeast Austin

Ruiz Branch sits at 1600 Grove Boulevard. Ruiz has reservable shared-learning rooms for small groups. The library says these rooms are free, hold up to ten people depending on the room, and may be booked for up to two hours. Reservations open two weeks ahead and must be made at least two hours before the start. Drinks need lids, and food stays outside.

Closer to Dove Springs, Southeast Branch at 5803 Nuckols Crossing Road lists its own meeting-room calendar. Use the Austin Public Library meeting-room page to compare the small-room and larger-room rules. Room use never means that the library sponsors the study.

A home table may be simpler when people want to eat together or meet every week. Ask about parking, pets, stairs, children, and the last bus before choosing a host. If the group includes Spanish and English speakers, use a short passage and leave time for both languages instead of making one person translate the whole night.

A first Austin study that fits in one hour

Read Matthew 5:1-16 aloud. Ask who Jesus calls blessed, which sentence is hardest to believe, and what being light would look like on your own block this week. Nobody has to lecture. End by choosing one teaching to practice and setting the next date. The beginner Bible study guide has three more meetings ready to use.

Austin is a new growth area for these connections. The page does not promise that a group is already waiting near you. Use the form below to tell us your neighborhood and schedule. We can talk about a small Google Meet group while nearby connections grow.

A "stone of help" on East Tenth Street

In February 1875 the Rev. C. Ward gathered eighteen people in the home of Elisa Hawkins at 1104 East Tenth Street. Most of the charter members were women. One of them, Henrietta Willis, named the church Ebenezer, "stone of help," after the stone Samuel set up to say the Lord had helped Israel (1 Samuel 7:12). The congregation built a brick sanctuary at East Tenth and San Marcos in 1885. Its present limestone building went up between 1950 and 1955, and the bell tower still holds the bell from 1885. Today it is Ebenezer Third Baptist Church, in the heart of East Austin.

Community First! Village has a newer faith story. Mobile Loaves & Fishes says it began by answering God's call to love your neighbor. The village groups 40 to 50 small homes around shared outdoor kitchens and laundry rooms, so neighbors cross paths every day.

Neither Ebenezer nor Mobile Loaves & Fishes is connected to this guide. Go and learn from them, and read the Scriptures for yourself the way the Bereans did (Acts 17:11).